Curry Pork with Green Beans

I know it's been a minute ya'll, but I've been busy, and I hope you have all been eating well. I have been busy as Hell for one of the unemployed masses, though my sweetly broke unemployed life ends next week when I return to the work force, at least part time.

So, before I do all that business, I decided to share with you a delicious recipe that is even now perfecting on the stove.

Curry Pork with Green Beans

1 lb pork ribs (if bone is in, cut meat from bone into 1" pieces)*
1/2 yellow onion chopped
2 jalapenos chopped
2 cloves garlic smashed and chopped
1 cup fresh green beans
1 packet Goya Sazon with Azafran
2 tbsp patis (fish sauce)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2-3 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp olive oil

First, in a wok, heat the olive oil. Add in the onions, garlic, and jalapenos. Sautee them together for about 3-4 minutes until the garlic starts to brown and the onions are translucent.

Next, add in the pork. Sautee this all together for a couple of minutes until the pork starts to brown. Then add in the rest of the ingredients except the green beans.

Cook this all together for about 10-12 minutes on high heat. You want the pork to be almost cooked before you add in the green beans. Throw the green beans into the wok and sautee for another five minutes or so.

Remove from heat and serve over jasmine rice.

This recipe will run you about $8 and will happily feed 2-4 people.

*

If you buy the ribs with the bone DON'T WASTE THE MEAT THAT IS LEFT ON THE BONE! But that shiz in a pot of water, add soy sauce, and cook those bones and gnaw the meat off of them.

Roast Pork Shoulder with Ginger and Garlic

These days, I generally stick to chicken for my protein. That, though, is not a hard and fast rule. Now and again, particularly if I am out to eat, I will throw down on a juicy hamburger.

Every once in a while, my inner ethnic groups start clamoring for something a little more substantial than chicken. And even more rarely they start squealing like a pig to get their point across.

That happened today on the way back from the gym.

One of the reasons, among many, that I love New York is that there are still things such as butcher shops readily available in almost every neighborhood. It just so happens that my landlord is also a butcher, and his butcher shop is about a half a block away from my apartment. If you are in Midtown and looking for a great butcher, check out Sonny's Meat Market on 52nd and 10th Avenue.

I swung through today and found Sonny himself behind the butcher block. I requested a pork roast, and he brought out a beautiful pork shoulder. Sonny's is one of those great places that will slice and dice the meat just the way you want it. Sonny asked if I wanted the roast with slices in it for stuffing, and I said heck yeah!

Once I got the roast upstairs, I was in anticipatory heaven. Here's what I whipped up.

Roast Pork Shoulder with Ginger and Garlic

1 medium sized pork shoulder
8 cloves garlic sliced
1 medium size piece of ginger sliced
2 jalapenos sliced
1 bunch scallions diced
1/2 cup soy sauce

If you get your pork shoulder from the butcher, ask your butcher to slice the bottom of the roast and also to make slits into the top of the roast. Make sure the cuts on the top of the roast are deep and wide, as you will be stuffing the slits.

If you buy your shoulder at the grocer, the first thing you will want to do is make a series of slits both lengthwise and width wise on the bottom. Basically, you are going to cut into the skin and make a series of cuts that makes the bottom look like a crazy tic tac toe board.

Then, on the top, make a number of deep slits/punctures throughout the roast.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Once you have the roast slit up, take your garlic, ginger, scallions, and jalapenos and stuff the hell out of the roast. Make sure to put some of each into each slit on the top of the roast.

Then, once you have the roast impregnated with goodness, place the roast in a roasting pan. Then pour the soy sauce over the roast. Then, cover the roast either with the lid to a good roasting pan or with tin foil.

Place the roast in the oven and bake it for 2 to 3 hours or until cooked all the way through.

This roast will blow your mind. A good sized pork shoulder will run you about $10 and you can feed 8-10 people easily.

Stir Fried Pork in Black Bean Sauce Boricua Style

So this is the poor man's version of a quick stir fry with a "black bean" sauce. It's real good like. Now, if you are allergic to MSG or just don't like it...you can axe the GOYA Seasoning I include in the recipe. But let me tell you, we called this stuff "yum sauce," when I studied abroad at the UPR. It was also at the UPR that I discovered my love of Puerto Rican/Asian fusion style cooking. This is a rather quick recipe...I got home at 7:15 tonight, and I was eating by 7:50. To make the recipe go faster, before you start prepping the stir fry, start your rice cooking. By the time your rice is done (I used medium grain white rice tonight), your food should be done. If you are using brown rice, then start your brown rice, and wait about 15 minutes before starting to cook the stir fry...otherwise the stir fry will be done way before the rice is.

Stir Fried Pork in Black Bean Sauce Boricua Style

1 package pork chops
1/4 red onion
4 cloves garlic
1 can GOYA black beans
2 cups fresh green beans
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
3 jalapeno peppers
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 package GOYA Sazon con Azafran (Saffron)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil


First slice your pork into strips and set aside.

Break the tips off the green beans, then snap beans in half. Set aside.

Then dice your onion, garlic, cilantro and jalapenos. Heat the olive oil, add the onion, garlic, cilantro, and peppers and stir fry for about two minutes.

Add the pork to the mixture. Stir fry for about one minute.


Add the soy sauce, red pepper, and Sazon packet to the mixture. Stir fry for about 10 minutes. Open the can of black beans and dump the contents into the wok. Cook for another five minutes.

Add the green beans to the concoction, and let cook another five minutes.

Slap that deliciousness over some rice, and serve it up!

Depending on the cut of the pork chops you get (I got thick center cut tonight, which was a little more expensive), this whole gourmet explosion should run you about $6-$9 and feed two to four people.

Garlic Pork Soup

So, yesterday, I decided to experiment with pork, again. And I ended up with a lip smacking soup that will fill you up and leave you wishing you had an extra stomach.

Garlic/Ginger Pork Soup

3-4 pork chops with bone
1 large red bell pepper
1 large carrot
4 large red potatoes
4-6 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 cup cilantro diced
1 jalapeno
2-3 chicken boullion cubes (or if you want to get really fun...used 2 tsb Better than Boullion....though one jar will cost you $9)
1 tsp seasoning salt
4-5 diced scallions
1/2 tsp salt
20-30 pieces of fresh okra
1 tsb minced ginger root
1/2 cup minced fresh basil
1 large shallot minced (optional)


Begin by taking a medium to large sized sauce pot, place the pork chops into the pot and sprinkle the pork chops with the seasoning salt and salt. Fill with water and slowly simmer the pork chops over medium high heat for two hours. Make sure to check the pork chops regularly and continue to add water to the point to make sure that the chops remain covered with liquid. This will create a rich, clear broth. Once the pork chops have been cooked thoroughly and allowed to simmer, remove the chops from the pot, remove the meat from the bones, and discard the bones. With a large kitchen knife, dice the pork meat into munchable pieces, and return to the pot. Add to the pot the remaining ingredients (potatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces; cilantro; diced jalapeno; garlic; bouillon cubes; carrot, also cut into bite sized pieces, okra cut into little circles and red pepper). Allow the soup to simmer for an hour. Remove from heat, and serve it up.

This soup is fantastic, and will easily feed a family of four for a couple of meals. The total cost for this meal, depending on where you are, will be roughly $10.

Brandon's Pork Chop Ramen Fabulous

Any of y'all that grew up broke or went to college or went broke in college or went to college broke or broke down while broke in college cuz you had to grow up...will know of the great and powerful $.25 meal called ramen.

Now when I was a kid...all I knew about was Top Ramen and Smack Ramen and Cup-o-Noodle Ramen. By adulthood, I had discovered an entire world of imported ramen from China, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. I once believed that ramen came only in pork, chicken, beef, oriental, and shrimp flavors. Only to discover, thanks to many an Asian grocer, that there is roast duck flavor, hard boiled egg flavored, and some flavors that don't even have a translation in English.

Now that I am officially too old to actually eat a package of ramen as a meal. And, considering I personally made several ramen manufacturers extremely wealthy as I packed away two packages of ramen AS A SNACK through most of my teen years, I thought I would combine my love of ramen with my love of half-way good for you food.

So, I created this recipe, and let me tell you...it is so good that I am going to ask the Ramen Gods to include it on the backs of all my favorite brand's packages.

Brandon's Pork Chop Ramen Fabulous

3 Packages Chicken Flavored Ramen
3-4 small to medium sized pork chops, lean cut, with some marbling
4 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon seasoning salt
1 tsp salt
1 bunch of scallions
1 large sweet red bell pepper
1 large jalapeno
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp olive oil

First, lay the pork chops in an oven safe cooking pan. Sprinkle the seasoning salt and salt on the pork chops, then pour the soy sauce over the pork chops. Cover the dish with tin foil and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for about 30-45 minutes. Turn once about half way through cooking.

Once the pork chops are done, remove the pork chops from the pan but SAVE THE JUICES in the pan. Slice the pork chops off of the bone and then dice into strips or bite size pieces. Set the bones aside.

In a sauce pan, bring six cups of water to a boil. When you put the water on to boil add the pork chop bones to the water. Once the water begins to boil throw the ramen noodles into the water and let them boil up for two minutes or until al dente. Drain the noodles into a strainer, and then remove the bones from the noodles in the strainer.

In a large wok, heat olive oil, then add garlic (minced), jalapenos, and onions, allow to sizzle and snap and fry up for a good three to four minutes. This allows the onions and garlic to caramelize and sweeten. Then add the noodles. To this add TWO of the three chicken flavoring packages from the ramen....DO NOT use all three or it will be tooooo salty. Stir the noodles, onions, jalapenos, and garlic together. Then pour the juice from the baking pan into the mixture. To that add the sweet bell pepper, cut into bite size pieces, and the chopped pork chop meat to the mix. Keep the dish stirring for about 3 minutes, just enough time to let the bell pepper soften up a bit...and then get you a bowl, put some of the food in it, and eat it up. Lemme tell you...you ain't NEVER had ramen like this before.

With pork prices at an all time low (thanks H1N1 virus!), this dish is mega cheapy. You can put the whole thing together for $6-$7.